1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure pertains to the treatment of fines migration. In particular, the disclosure pertains to treating a subterranean reservoir with a water-soluble alkylene oxide branched polyhydroxyetheramine additive to stabilize or immobilize fines and thereby prohibit their migration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fine particles of clays and other minerals (hereinafter “fines”) are often found contained in within the pore throats of reservoir rocks. These fines can become dislodged by the flow of fluids, such as water (fresh or saline) and cause movement within the pore throat area. Fines can also be generated from abrasion of proppant grains against one another during hydraulic fracture stimulation and/or gravel packing operations. For example, when gas shale is hydraulically fracture stimulated, it can sometimes literally shatter into very small fragments, which would also result in problems associated with fines migration, such as reducing not only the effective permeability of the created fracture, but also reducing the fracture flow capacity of the propped fracture.
Production of oil and/or gas can often be hampered by damage to the permeability caused by fines migration within the reservoir and/or the propped fracture(s). The interaction between injected fluids and the fines is exasperated as a result of a combination of mechanical shear forces, colloid-chemical reactions and geochemical transformations. This interaction, along with the temperature and pressure changes in the reservoir, may lead to the blocking or plugging of pores in the reservoir, thereby reducing flow capabilities.
Existing fines control treatments include commercially available cationic organic polymers (COP's), such as CLA-Sta FS, CLA-Sta XP, etc., silanes, and nanoparticles. However, COP's and silanes are only effective in sandstone formations and clays which have anionic sites on which the materials can attach via electrostatic attractions. Due to these limitations, it would be desirable to produce a treatment that would form a protective film over any surface (e.g. sandstone, clay, carbonate, shale, etc.) and also stabilize the fines to prohibit their migration.